First published by the Daily Maverick 168 weekly newspaper
Garbage lines a muddy dirt road on the outskirts of Frankfort, Free State, leading to an old quarry, the town’s dumping site. A bakkie stops at the foot of the trash-covered hill to the quarry and offloads bags of refuse by the road. Another bakkie follows, then another.
The quarry floods when it rains and water trickles through the trash towards the Wilge River, a tributary of the Vaal River.
Rubbish lays alongside the banks of a stream that runs into the Wilge River. The rubbish comes from the Namahadi Township outside Frankfort because of the lack of refuse collections. Daily Maverick / Shiraaz Mohamed